Table 2.

Demographic characteristics of new users and long-term users of hypnotics in 2018 and 2019

	New users of hypnotics	Long-term users of hypnotics
N	55,263	42,444
Age
Mean ± SD (95% CI)	44.3 ± 13.0 (44.2–44.4)	49.9 ± 11.3 (49.7–50.0)
Median (range)	45 (20–74)	50 (20–74)
Age group
20–34	14,577 (26.4%) [26.0–26.7]	4487 (10.6%) [10.3–10.9]
35–49	19,779 (35.8%) [35.4–36.2]	15,208 (35.8%) [35.4–36.3]
50–64	17,757 (32.1%) [31.7–32.5]	18,794 (44.3%) [43.8–44.8]
65–74	3150 (5.7%) [5.5–5.9]	3955 (9.3%) [9.0–9.6]
Sex
Male	29,892 (54.1%) [53.7–54.5]	22,900 (54.0%) [53.5–54.4]
Female	25,371 (45.9%) [45.5–46.3]	19,544 (46.0%) [45.6–46.5]
Medical specialty
General practice	33,961 (61.5%) [61.0–61.9]	19,304 (45.5%) [45.0–46.0]
Psychiatry	16,513 (29.9%) [29.5–30.3]	20,658 (48.7%) [48.2–49.1]
Others	4789 (8.7%) [8.4–8.9]	2482 (5.8%) [5.6–6.1]
Clinical setting
Clinic	46,258 (83.7%) [83.4–84.0]	32,524 (76.6%) [76.2–77.0]
Hospital	9005 (16.3%) [16.0–16.6]	9920 (23.4%) [23.0–23.8]
Baseline psychiatric comorbidity
Depressive disorders	8482 (15.3%) [15.0–15.7]	25,147 (59.2%) [58.8–59.7]
Anxiety disorders	5925 (10.7%) [10.5–11.0]	10,147 (23.9%) [23.5–24.3]
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders	1966 (3.6%) [3.4–3.7]	11,501 (27.1%) [26.7–27.5]
Bipolar disorders	1304 (2.4%) [2.2–2.5]	7493 (17.7%) [17.3–18.0]
Substance use disorders	538 (1.0%) [0.9–1.1]	1219 (2.9%) [2.7–3.0]
Neurocognitive disorders	56 (0.1%) [0.1–0.1]	119 (0.3%) [0.2–0.3]
Others	8449 (15.3%) [15.0–15.6]	16,056 (37.8%) [37.4–38.3]
Number of hypnotics
1	53,242 (96.3%) [96.2–96.5]	28,955 (68.2%) [67.8–68.7]
2	1982 (3.6%) [3.4–3.7]	12,389 (29.2%) [28.8–29.6]
3	38 (0.1%) [0.0–0.1]	990 (2.3%) [2.2–2.5]
≥ 4	< 5	110 (0.3%) [0.2–0.3]

Values are n (%) [95% CI] unless stated otherwise

As a neurocognitive disorder, we limited the analysis to patients with Alzheimer’s disease

CI confidence interval, SD standard deviation